1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to therapeutic animal toys.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art and Need For the Invention
There are an estimated fifty-two million dogs kept as domestic pets in the United States, creating an estimated twelve billion dollar per year industry. It is further estimated that over two billion dollars of industry revenues are specifically for non-food pet supplies, including chew bones, chew toys and teething remedies. Much of these toys and remedies are to alleviate teething or other chewing behavior by dogs and other domestic pets, which can cause considerable damage to furniture, carpeting, walls, shoes and other items. The damage caused by this behavior can be very expensive.
Presently, there are many chew toys on the market to help control a teething dog or other domestic animal's desire to chew. Examples of these are rawhide chews or bones, cloth "pulls" and ropes, as well as various vinyl, nylon, plastic, rubber and latex toys. All of these toys are designed to help mitigate some of the destruction by a domestic animal's chewing or teething. Each type of chew toy, however, has inherent weaknesses.
The most common chew toy is rawhide, yet it is actively discouraged by veterinarians due to the inherent danger of domestic animals such as dogs swallowing large pieces as the rawhide softens and tears. Other available toys, like various tug-of-war toys such as cloth ropes and rubber pulls by O'Rourke, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,092,272, Des. 329,310, Des. 328,805, and toys manufactured from vinyl or a hard nylon polymer in various shapes and sizes, are safer, but not optimal. Like many other things in life, the safest is also the least exciting. Since those chew toys have little or no flavor, and very little "give", dogs and other domestic pets find them very boring, and will often ignore them entirely. Even those chew toys that have flavor imbedded into the material become boring to an animal after a short period of time.
Tug-of-war toys such as cloth ropes or rubber pulls can also be problematic to the pet owner. It is widely accepted that playing tug of war encourages over-stimulation and aggression, and many behaviorists discourage pet owners from this type of play. It has been observed, however, that if the pet owner could actually "win" in the tug-of-war game, it would lessen the intrinsic dominance of his or her pet. With current tug toys, this is virtually impossible, since they are designed to allow the pet to literally sink its teeth into them and hold fast. The design of the present invention overcomes this problem entirely by its combination of shape, material and surface design. The design of the present invention allows for it to rather easily be removed from the domestic animal's mouth, avoiding the confrontational aspects of tug-of-war toys.
As mentioned, other inventions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,334 by Axelrod, have attempted to increase a domestic animal's interest by adding a flavor or odor to a chew toy. A problem with this invention, however, is that only one flavor is impregnated into the toy item. The present invention has the ability to be of variable flavor by inserting different food-stuffs into its cavity.
From a standpoint of domestic animal, or more particularly, dog behavior, it is important to create and develop a toy that can fulfill all the requirements of a chew and play toy. It has to be safe, easy to use, and interesting over time to the pet. It also needs to be multi-purpose. That is, not only a chew item for the teething animal, but also have the potential of being an interactive toy between two or more adult pets, or the pet and his owner. To discourage a domestic animal from becoming bored with the toy, it has to be variable, without requiring a pet owner to purchase several different items. It must likewise be durable and economical.